Renovating Old Asparagus Beds

The principal causes of asparagus beds running out are that in the first

place ten plants are set out in a space where only one could thrive;

then that the ground is not rich enough and had no proper cultivation;

and last, but not least, that the cutting of the stalks has been carried

to excess. What to do with the old bed is sometimes a perplexing

question, especially when a place changes hands and the new proprietor

has more progressive ideas than the former one had.



Let the old bed stay, and set out a new one according to rational

methods. Some years ago the writer came into possession of an asparagus

bed which was known to be forty years old, and may have been much older.

It was a solid mass of roots without any distinguishable rows. The

spears produced were so small and tough that the first impulse was to

dig up the roots. But as this proved to be a more formidable task than

was anticipated, another plan was pursued. In autumn the bed was thickly

covered with fine yard manure. The following spring the bed was marked

out into strips of two feet in width. When the sprouts appeared those in

every alternate strip were cut clean off during the entire summer, and

the others allowed to grow. In the autumn of the year another heavy

application of manure was given to the entire bed. The following year

but few shoots appeared in the strips which had been cut all through the

summer. These were treated the same as before, and in the third year not

a sprout appeared in the alleys. The stalks left for use improved

greatly during the first year and the third year were of good

serviceable size and quality, so that even after the new bed, which had

been planted at the time this experiment was commenced, came into

bearing, the old one was retained for several years longer. Probably if

the vacant strips had been made three or four feet wide the result would

have been still better. This experience suggests the idea that the

easiest and least expensive way of exterminating an old asparagus bed is

to persistently mow down all the shoots for a season or two.